Seeyah Sat-ellite

Over the weekend there was this interesting segment on CNN International reporting from the first (official) standup comedy festival ever held in the Arab world.

The interviewer was Asieh Namdar, one of a trio of high-profile Persian anchor women on CNN the last several years. First came Christiane Amanpour, of course, and the last time she did a human interest story regarding her motherland was this sweet story back in 2000 of Team Melli playing the USA at the Rose Bowl in Pasadena.

Then there is Rudy Bakhtiar, who was the anchor of Headline News in the primetime slot in 2004. After a short stint at the Fox News Channel, the Fresno-born UCLA grad has since moved onto non-profit ventures, including being a director of the newly-formed Public Affairs Alliance of Iranian Americans (PAAIA). Ms. Bakhtiar's first production for the organization is this mini-doc profile on the aforementioned Pardis Sabeti.